The Blame Game: A Faltering McCain slams Bush

Recent poll results that show McCain falling behind Obama in key states like Iowa and Florida have spurred the campaign to adopt a new strategy in hopes of separating himself from sitting President GW Bush. During a recent interview with the Washington Times John McCain blasted Bush for everything from Global Warming and economic failures to failing policies regarding the War.

McCain blamed Bush for misconduct of the War, for growing the government to a size not seen since the “the Great Society,” for increasing the national debt to $10 trillion dollars, and for owing a $500 Billion dollar debt to China.McCain also blamed Bush for failing to support the expansion of Medicare and for abusing executive powers, as well as for failing to enforce and update financial regulatory agencies responsible for safe guarding the economy.McCain especially blasted Bush for supporting the Medicare prescriptions drug plan because he said taxpayers should not pay for the plan.

This strong criticism of Bush was no doubt meant to counter claims by Obama that electing McCain would be like re-electing Bush.A substantial number of comparisons between McCain and Bush have been suggested, and a recent Obama advertisement features McCain proudly stating he voted with Bush over 90% of the time.Now McCain is attempting to settle the blame for any upcoming failure squarely on Bush’s shoulders.

There are problems with McCain’s criticism of the Bush years since he did in fact vote for most of the policies he now criticizes. McCain voted to authorize the war and had to know funding for the war was being borrowed from China. McCain voted against preventing cuts to the Medicaid program and continually opposed any attempt to institute strict financial regulatory protocols for Wall Street and the Banking industry.

While McCain might want to create distance between himself and Bush, they really are birds of the same feather.Interestingly, the one item that McCain truly disagrees with Bush about is Global Warming, a topic that his running mate, Sarah Palin, considers to be unaffected by human activity and largely a media exaggeration.

Those same polls that show McCain losing also show that 50% percent of those poled report negative feelings toward Sarah Palin.McCain will only have himself to blame if Palin proves to be a fatal drag to the campaign that leads to his demise.